ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to acknowledge the diversity of the sexual and gender minority while drawing the reader’s attention to the common experiences of discrimination and marginalisation that LGBT people face and the impact of these on psychological well-being. It also looks at ethical approaches to working with LGBT people, starting with the practitioner’s own stance in relation to this work. There is as much variation in this population as there is in the heterosexual population. The most commonly used model of sexual identity formation, this suggests a final phase of identity synthesis when lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people acknowledge sexuality to be merely one aspect of who they are. Diversity also extends to the range of identities and expressions of sexuality and gender within the sexual minority and so the term LGBT will not fully reflect the makeup of this population. Trans agendas have become aligned with those of the LGB communities because of common experiences of marginalisation and discrimination, but not without some disagreement (British Psychological Society (BPS), 2012), and this again warns us against assuming homogeneity.
